LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz alleges that the Imran Khan government had attempted to try senior party leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif under Article-6 as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf exploited state institutions during its tenure in power.

Punjab PML-N information secretary Azma Bukhari told a press conference that the former director-general of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bashir Memon had disclosed that the Imran government had pressurised him to institute cases, including the one under Article-6, against the opposition leadership, particularly Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

She said the Imran government did politics of vendetta in the name of accountability during its four years in power.

“Imran Khan exploited state institutions to run his government and suppress his political rivals.”

Ms Bukhari said more and more ‘facts’ about the political vendetta would be exposed when proceedings of ex-Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Siddiqui’s case in the Supreme Court would be held and former National Accountability Bureau chairman Javed Iqbal’s ‘story’ would become public.

The PML-N leader alleged that through some [objectionable] video clips the Imran government had made the ex-NAB chairman to fall into line and exploit his powers for suppressing the opposition.

The video clips, she said, had been submitted by Tayyaba Faruq, a victim of Javed Iqbal’s misuse of office authority, to the PM’s Complaint Portal to save her from ‘sexual exploitation’ of then NAB chairman. But Imran used this evidence to blackmail Javed Iqbal and exploit NAB powers against the then opposition instead of providing justice to the complainant [Tayyaba Faruq], she regretted.

She said then principal secretary to prime minister Azam Khan met Tayyaba multiple times to get the evidence against the sexual harassment, and then one of the video clips was screened through a TV channel [owned by a friend of Imran Khan] without a permission of the complainant.

The NAB chairman was made to shut his eyes towards Malam Jabba and Billion Tree projects and [corruption] cases against former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Pervaiz Khattak.

“Imran Khan has always exploited women for his dirty politics. Once he married a woman [Jemima] to get her wealth and then another [Reham] to win media attention and married [Bushra alias Pinki] yet another time to use [her] spiritualism for his lust for power.”

She alleged that former chief justice Saqib Nisar convicted ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz under a conspiracy, while Imran misused video evidence against then NAB chairman to strengthen his power and stifle the opposition.

Ms Bukhari said that NAB under Javed Iqbal also mentally tortured Maryam Nawaz by installing cameras in the prison cell where Maryam was incarcerated while male investigators were deputed to probe her.

She alleged that no case was instituted on medicine, sugar and LNG scandals during the PTI tenure in power because Javed Iqbal had been managed through the objectionable video clips.

She said Javed Iqbal owed to clarify his position to the nation vis-à-vis Tayyaba Faruq’s video and his one-sided accountability.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2022